Process 065 ☼ My Favorite Streetcasting Experience

GIVEAWAY: limited edition NOTICE epiloque in IMPRINT

Dear friends,

This week’s letter is about one of my favorite street casting experiences ever in Manhattan and the creative collaboration that came from it.

This week’s PROCESS GIVEAWAY is a limited edition print publication called IMPRINT which includes a portfolio of never before seen images from the NOTICE body of work.

Also a head’s up that I am teaching an online workshop about creating your personal brand as a photographer for the Daisie platform on June 16th. More info here.

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Walking The Streets

In the summer of 2019 I had just spent some time in the studio with one of my photographic heroes and I felt so inspired I had to go walk off the excitement and shoot some street photography. I walked up the West Side Highway, passing the Intrepid and watching New Yorkers on their run or walking around with their friends and strollers. I passed by a small skate park, which is always a go-to spot for me for finding interesting people doing photogenic things. This time was no different.

Here is the last image I shot on this particular roll, when I spotted Justin drying his face off with his shirt. I loved his energy so I loaded up a fresh roll right away.

I started off taking some action and detail shots of Justin skating and eventually made eye contact and struck up a conversation. Skaters are generally people who love photography and videography since skate culture has been visual from the start so I never really worry about getting a bad reaction when taking pictures.

After this encounter we exchanged information so I could send him the images. A few months later we met up in Domino Park in Brooklyn on a really cold day.

Justin brought a few outfits and we approached the day like an editorial shoot as if he might be featured in a magazine and these images would be run alongside the words.

It was so cold that after a few rolls my fingers started to refuse to focus properly and Justin was shivering in his spring time outfits so we headed over to the Williamsburg hotel where the staff kindly allowed us to take some photos in one of their restaurant during a quiet spell without guests.

A few months later I invited Justin to the studio for a shoot with my friend Paul Jun. Below are some shots of Justin from the same roll that would also end up including my portrait of Sierra that was included in the Portrait of Humanity book published by the British Journal of Photography. This portrait was eventually even shot into space.

The show below is from the same roll and to this day is one of my favorite portraits that I’ve shot in the studio ever. Justin is wearing my peacoat and his own beanie hat and there’s something so beautiful and calm and melancholic behind his eyes.

A few months later we met up again, this time in Washington Square Park where Justin and Ocean were going to skate and hang. Justin was now blonde and had started to lean into his interest in fashion design more. Our vibe this time was slightly more gritty and street oriented, but still with lots of feeling and personality.

This roll led to two of my favorite shots, both included below. There’s something about the vulnerability of the first shot that I adore and hope to capture more of.

This last one is my favorite of the roll because I caught Justin in the middle of a movement that neither one of us would have come up with as a pose. It has a certain emotional charge that is hard for me to put my finger on. It tells a certain story though I am not exactly sure how the story ends, just like my favorite French films.

Unfortunately due the pandemic it’s been a while since Justin and I have met up for another shoot, but I hope we can make it later this year. In the mean time, Justin has signed with an modeling agent and he’s been designing clothes and making art.

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Recent Lisbon Trip

If you follow me on IG you might have seen I was in beautiful Lisbon, Portugal, for a wonderful client shoot. During the couple of free hours on the day after I walked the streets with new photo friends and snapped some street shots, including this one.

I can highly recommend this beautiful city for your upcoming travel. Talking about recommending this, this shot was developed and scanned by my pals at Carmencita Film Lab. Use code “PROCESS” at check out to get a free size upgrade for your scans.

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That’s it for this week! Next week I’m taking a rare week off to set the next phase of Process up for success and the next issue will hit your inbox on June 26th.

Keep shooting and take good care of yourselves and others.

Wesley

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Process Giveaway!

Over a year ago the Mumbia-based G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture approached me to commission a companion piece to my photo book NOTICE for the first issue of their print publication Imprint.

I put together a series of fifteen of my favorite images from the NOTICE body of work. These are all images that were not included in the book itself but rank among my top favorites from the entire body of work. Together they form a narrative which serves as an epilogue of sorts to NOTICE.

I’m thrilled to say I just received the print copy of Imprint and it’s absolutely beautiful in layout and print quality. It’s a limited edition items only sold out of the beautiful country of India and a bit of a must-have if you’re a NOTICE completist.

The good news it that you can win a signed copy of this limited edition IMPRINT publication by entering the Giveaway visit the Process Flipgrid page and tell us:

You are invited to be the on-set photographer for one of your favorite movies of all time. Which movie is it?

Enter the Giveaway HERE before 11pm EST on June 19th.

This can be any movie you love. Imagine getting to visit the set with your camera and photograph the action in between scenes. Portraits of the actors, beautiful sets, behind-the-scenes, all of it!

The process of recording and/or uploading a video is easy and fast. Almost 300 kind and generous people have done so so far, including lots of shy photo folks (we all are!) so don’t feel nervous, it’s a safe community to share and learn from each other. <3

The winner will be randomly drawn. This giveaway is for Process subscribers only.

Congrats to Matt B. who won last week’s creative coaching session!

Shout out to the team over at Flipgrid for partnering with Process to make this new Giveaway system possible. You can enter the Giveaway on mobile via the Flipgrid app or on desktop in a browser.

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